Essay: And Paris will always have Notre Dame

(AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau and Michel Euler) At left a1987 file photo of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and at right an image from April 15, 2019 of Notre Dame on fire. Firefighters declared success Tuesday April 16, 2019 morning in an over 12-hour battle to extinguish an inferno engulfing Paris' iconic Notre Dame cathedral that claimed its spire and roof, but spared its bell towers.Every cathedral, like any great stone building, is a work in progress. No sooner have the walls risen than they start to collapse, the weight of stone pushing down and splaying out, settling and cracking.

Take a closer look at most great old churches, and you see huge pillars wrapped in metal, iron reinforcing…